Tony Woolliscroft is a UK based photographer who, for the best part of last 20 years, has been following and documenting the Red Hot Chili Peppers' growth and development. From early gigs in small venues, to large stadiums, and even to the secret shows that the band has done. He has followed them all along documenting them in photos.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American alternative rock band the originally formed in Los Angeles in 1983. They combined alternative, punk, funk, rap, and psychedelic rock in to a unique and very recognizable style. While they recorded three albums with little success, it was 1989's Mother's Milk that propelled them to international fame. It was during their 1990 European tour that Tony Woolliscroft first met the band.
Over the course of the last 20 years the band consisted primarily of Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante, Michael "Flea" Balzary, and Chad Smith, with a dash of Dave Navarro thrown in. The book contains a massive amount of photos with a lot of personal stories from the author. There is also an introduction by Chad Smith with whom the author became good friends with. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Me And My Friends is a large format book 11.1 x 9.7 inches in size, contains 224 pages and breaks down into 6 chapters that are titled for the albums that defined significant milestones in the groups progress.
Chapter One, "MOTHER'S MILK," introduces the meeting up of Woolliscroft with the band in January 1990 in London England. It was at their second show that he got his first pictures of the band and on a subsequent third show on the backside of their tour where he befriended the group by giving Kiedis original photos (there was no digital back then) to take back to America. Kiedis in turn gave Woolliscroft his home address. By New Years Eve 1990, Woolliscroft had met up with the band in the states for the final show of the year.
Chapter Two, "BLOOD SUGAR SEX MAGIC," has Woolliscroft meeting up again with the band durin the 1992 European tour, but things were not going well internally. Frusciante was detaching from the group, and Kiedis was shattered. It is during this time that you see how the band handled these tribulations, bringing in ex-Jane's Addiction Guitarist Dave Navarro to replace Frusciante on guitar.
Chapter Three, "ONE HOT MINUTE," is the first album that heralds in the Navarro age of the Chili's. During this time period, the mood of the band's music began to become darker, and this is when Chad Smith, the drummer began to hit Woolliscroft with his drumsticks from across the stage while in the middle of songs. A truly funny story! This chapter also contains the "Socks on Cocks" show and the Flea gets butt naked episode.
Article comments